Moberly High School 2008 graduate Trey Barrow, a University of Missouri senior and punter/kicker for the MU Tigers football team, was guest speaker at the Moberly Rotary Club luncheon held Dec. 27. He shared football stories and announced his plans to enter the NFL Draft to be held next summer.

Sam Richardson, Special to the Monitor-Index

As a teenager, Trey Barrow always saw his sports future in baseball. Indeed, as a senior at Moberly High School, he pounded out a .440 batting average en route to being named All-Missouri.

He won four varsity letters as a Spartan in baseball. Of course, he also was All-Missouri in football and an outstanding basketball player. When his prep career came to an end in 2008, Barrow had amassed 12 varsity letters, a rare achievement at any high school.

When Barrow spoke to the Moberly Rotary Club last week--as a young man who's played football in some of the most famous football shrines in America, with a bachelor's degree in nutrition and fitness in his pocket and a possible NFL career ahead of him--he seemed plenty happy with the way things turned out for him as a member of the University of Missouri Tiger pigskin program.

During his time as a Tiger, Barrow won three varsity letters, participated in three post-season bowl games, played in a couple of NFL stadiums, earned numerous conference and team honors (Co-Special Teams Player of the Year in 2011) and pretty much rewrote the punting record book.

He told the Rotarians he would resume serious conditioning workouts next week in preparation for a series of NFL tryout camps this winter in Phoenix, Los Angeles and Honolulu, preparing himself for the opportunity to move on to the highest level of competition in the sport he never thought was his best.

Not that Barrow wasn't among the best of the best on the gridiron during his time as a football Spartan. As a wide receiver, he did score 299 points while in high school, including 14 field goals. Several hundred Spartan faithful were on hand at Kirksville when Barrow kicked a field goal with one second remaining to defeat those other Tigers, 10-9, for the district championship. Barrow also snagged 13 interceptions as a defensive back.

Barrow was a preferred walk-on at Mizzou, like another former Spartan great, Lance Noel, 20 years before him. Noel also went on to earn three varsity letters as an MU starter. Barrow explained the preferred walk-on status means a player has a locker, a jersey number and is otherwise a member of the practice squad, without a scholarship.

The Tigers redshirted Barrow, which allowed him to get stronger and learn from older kickers. The lessons paid off, Barrow told the Rotarians, as demonstrated in his handling of kickoffs, field goals, point after touchdown kicks as well as punting during his years with the Tigers. He also earned a full scholarship when he won a starting job in 2010.

This season, he handled 68 punts for a 43.0 yard average, with a long of 69 yards. He had one kick blocked, had three touchbacks, 20 fair caught, 18 kicks of 50 yards or more and dropped 30 punts inside the 20 yard line. He also handled 30 kickoffs for an average of 59.1 yards. He saved his best for last, averaging 52 yards a punt in the season finale at Texas A&M and gained 20 yards on a fake punt--all for naught as the Tigers fell to the Aggies.

Barrow played in 38 varsity games as a Tiger. He carried the ball three times, threw a couple of passes, scored 44 points on 23 point after kicks and seven field goals. All of the field goals came in the 2011 season, when he hit seven of nine with a long of 39 yards. His long punt, also in 2011, sailed 74 yards.

This season, after watching some Australian rules football, he taught himself how to punt the ball shoe-to-nose. The technique resulted in an accurate kick which spun end over end and bounced backward when it hit the ground. Rotarian Jim Cooksey had spotted the unusual punt during the season and Barrow explained the technique for the club.

In his remarks to the Rotarians, Barrow had no criticism to offer of Coach Gary Pinkel or his assistants, despite the disappointing 5-7 result this fall. And he was complimentary of the coaching moves Pinkel has made for 2013. Indeed, if things don't work out for him in the NFL, Barrow would like to have a shot at a career in college coaching, starting as a graduate assistant at MU. He's already submitted a resume for consideration as one of the GA spots.

Barrow did put himself in the column with other shocked MU fans when the Tigers lost to Vanderbilt and Syracuse. That wasn't supposed to happen, he said. The Tigers had prepared to defeat both Vandy and the Orange and, with those results, would be training for another bowl game this week, Barrow said.

For now, Barrow is in graduate school, taking advantage of thelast semester on his athletic scholarship. Always a scholar-athlete, Barrow was on the All-Big 12 academic team last year.

In answer to a question from Rotarian David Weis, Barrow said he did not believe he encountered undue obstacles coming from a small school and seeking a spot with a high profile Division I program in one of the most elite football conferences in the land. He noted that MU has lost several Columbia and Columbia area athletes to other schools in the Big 12 and SEC.

And, forever a Spartan, Barrow took the opportunity to compliment Coach Jason Ambroson and his Moberly High School staff for creating a workout and practice environment very similar to what the Tigers use at Columbia. Those conditions were directly responsible for the storied 2007 campaign, in which the Spartans went 10-0 in the regular season and finished 11-1, losing at St. Francis Borgia of Washington in the state quarterfinals. "To this date, I hate going to Washington," Barrow joked.